Mmamoloko Nkhensani Kubayi, who has raised her hand to replace David Mabuza as ANC deputy president at this year’s party conference, does not accept the dualism that one either has to support radical economic transformation or renewal.
Kubayi is so far the only woman who has publicly announced her availability for the ANC’s second-most powerful position. The position has in the post-1994 ANC tradition meant that the incumbent becomes the deputy president of the country if the party wins an election.
She joins a raft of names that have been bandied about for the position including ANC treasurer-general Paul Mashatile, justice minister Ronald Lamola, Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane and his Limpopo counterpart, Stanley Mathabatha.
If she were to clinch it, Kubayi would be the youngest party deputy president since OR Tambo became the acting president at 39 (a few months before his 40th birthday) after the sudden death of Albert Luthuli in 1967.
“Radical economic transformation and renewal are policies of the ANC. All members of the ANC should be able to affiliate with and associate with both and not on some factional terms," Kubayi said.
“If we look at the renewal of the organisation, it is about bringing back the organisation to the centre of serving the people and also that it carries its original mandate. Over time people have raised concerns about an organisation that has become self-centred, self-focused with internal squabbles, and has forgotten about society.
“That is why in 2017, when we came out of conference, part of the mandate was that we must renew the organisation.
"Similarly with radical economic transformation – or to call it by its proper name, radical socioeconomic transformation.
“We cannot continue with material conditions on the ground that we find the organisation and the Republic in. That is why it was necessary for us to transform the economy of the country and ensure that you place the majority, who are in the margins, at the centre of it.
“Anyone who puts the other against the other is being malicious. I can’t say I have not been cognisant to see people calling themselves radical economic transformation as a lobby group.
“All of us as members of the ANC must embrace renewal and be able to identify with it. We might differ in terms of interpretation but all of us agree that we must have renewal.”
For Kubayi, a renewed ANC would be one that has leaders that society regards as holding a moral high ground and whose ethical grounding is beyond reproach.
Whereas talk in the ANC ahead of conference has been about how to include or even topple some generations in the leadership, Kubayi feels this is limiting because it says nothing about women.
“We have seen over years a generational mix being advocated and pursued. When you look at the effect, you do not find women. I believe in a generational mix. I do not believe in a hostile takeover by a generation. I believe that in the leadership, you need to have an older and younger generation."
Kubayi holds that while the ANC pursues gender parity, it must also become intentional about attracting minorities to the party. It should actively recruit from these communities and be conscious that its leadership, structures, even in government where the ANC is in charge, reflect the diversity of the SA population.
Being a 44-year-old woman in a party that has been traditionally led by older men, Kubayi expected and has met resistance for standing.
“There are those who believe that I am jumping generations. There are those who believe that by age they are more senior women. My response has been that the ANC has evolved. It is not just about me but it is about inspiring confidence in society. It is not about Struggle credentials.
“You cannot punish me for not being there to throw stones in 1976 because I was not yet born. What I must be judged on is my work in the ANC based on my age because I believe that my contribution far supersedes that of a number of people in the work that I have done,” she said.
Kubayi said she looks to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela as her political lodestar and hero, particularly because of her imperfections.
“She was a human being. She didn’t exist without faults. Sometimes as society we look for people who have no faults but they do not exist. That is why I do not believe in selling a dream that you could have a hero or a heroine that does not have faults. That’s why the character of mama Winnie resembles what I believe in and what I can identify with.”
She believes the body politic is obsessed with perfection, but that is not reality.
“I believe I am person many in society can identify with. As a teenager I was pregnant. A young person who becomes pregnant at an early age and thinks that is the end of the world, when they look at me, they can see hope.
“I am a child of a domestic worker but I managed to go to university without any family support. When I did my matric, I was living in an informal settlement. When a child in an informal settlement looks at me, they see hope.
“A young woman faces divorce and society tends to label them. They must be able to look at me and say, 'if she can manage to stand tall, I can too'. That is what has convinced me more to stand and just become a reflection of those who come from my background, who have no family Struggle credentials. I do not stand on any family name.
"That is the hope, even for younger people in the ANC, to say it is not about the family you come from. It is about your work, your ethical standing but more importantly your dedication and standing in the ANC.”
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